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Jackson Hewitt Tax Service said it has completed its internal review of fraud allegations by the Justice Department against several of its franchisees and said its corporate employees were not involved.

Ace Hardware said it has discovered an error in its historical financial statements that showed a $154 million difference between the company's 2006 general ledger balance and its actual inventory records.

The Senate Finance Committee continued its examination of whether to raise taxes on the earnings of managers of private equity firms and hedge funds by looking at the impact of carried interest taxation on pension funds.

Financial services firm Braver said it was merging with Nelson, Adam & Dickson, an accounting firm based in Concord, Mass.

Two upstate New York CPA firms are merging, with the Rochester-based firm of Bernardi & Russo joining forces with Buffalo-based Freed, Maxick & Battaglia.

While the Internal Revenue Service has issued a plan that adopts the IRS Oversight Board's goal of 86 percent voluntary compliance by 2009, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson cautioned against IRS efforts to ramp up enforcement excessively and cut corners in its treatment of taxpayers if it is pressured to do too much too soon."For fiscal year 2008, both the Internal Revenue Service and the Taxpayers Advocate Service face similar challenges," she said, in the second of her two annual reports to Congress. "The IRS is under scrutiny for its efforts to close the tax gap, while the TAS is struggling to address taxpayer difficulties that arise as a result of these very efforts."

In what Chairman Christopher Cox termed "a second front in an all-out war on complexity in financial reporting," the Securities and Exchange Commission has formed a Committee on Improvements to Financial Reporting and called on it to formulate specific ways "to reduce complexity and all its costly burdens."The committee will have a year to search for solutions that have eluded standard-setters and regulators for decades. While fears of litigation have led to complex and detailed rules-based standards, a growing demand for simplicity has inspired calls for less specific standards that are based more on principles.

Responding to widespread uncertainties about the implementation of Financial Accounting Statement 133, Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities, the Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued a proposed implementation issue intended to make it easier for companies to use the "shortcut method" in accounting for many hedging transactions.It should also help those companies' confidence.

President Bush is considering the possibility of simplifying the corporate tax system, as long as the changes don't affect the amount of taxes the government collects.The president's announcement came on the heels of a conference convened by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in July, in which he proposed a cut in corporate taxes to make the U.S. more competitive.

Enrique Vasquez is a most interesting person. I’ve gotten to know him over the years and have found him to be someone with a firm eye toward the future. Many times he will say, “It’s where I want to be.” Two and a half years ago, Vasquez succeeded the highly personable and knowledgeable David Reedy, one of the founders of Terra Securities which evolved into Genworth Financial Securities and Genworth Financial Advisors, both based in Schaumburg, Ill., the companies that Vasquez now heads. Actually, he moved into the top position as president and CEO at the ripe age of 39. I like to tease him with the fact that I have sneaks of such vintage and that two of my children are older than he is. Still, his background is fascinating. He has a B.S. in accounting from Kean College and an MBA in international finance from Fordham. He began his career with Societe Generale as a financial supervisor and then went over to GE, rising rapidly to become a vice president of GE Financial. Genworth Financial Securities has focused on helping tax and accounting professionals become successful wealth managers for over a quarter of a century and today has more than 2,400 independent representatives licensed in all 50 states. “My goal is to help clients fulfill their dreams by providing wealth management solutions,” says Vasquez. “Our vision at Genworth is to be the partner of choice for the independent financial professional with a focus on accountants and tax preparers.” Under his guidance, Genworth has developed a consultative culture working one-on-one with representatives. “We know that representatives need a strong partner to provide advanced training and support,” notes Vasquez, “so our practice management tools are delivered by seasoned specialists in a way that is customized to the needs of each representative.” In fact, it is noted that Genworth provides representatives with more than 300 training opportunities each year with meetings offered in more than 30 locations across the U.S. Vasquez winks when he is referred to as being so successful. But he points out that figures back him up. “On average, our representatives have been able to grow their business by 20 percent per year. The average tenure for our representatives is seven years.” He expects that to continue to grow. “The future. It’s certainly where I want to be.”